Albert Anthony Morales, a Diamond Bar resident and a band instructor and volunteer for local high schools, was recently arrested on sodomy charges. He is suspected of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student from Sunny Hills High School.
The Diamond Bar-Walnut Patch’s website, a popular source of local news, ran an article titled “Diamond Bar Band Instructor Arrested on Sexual Assault Charges,” concerning the recent arrest. Diamond Bar-Walnut Patch chose to run the headline because he was a Diamond Bar resident and the Los Angeles Times followed suit, publishing an article titled “Diamond Bar band teacher held in sex assault of 16-year-old girl.” These two article headlines led to the suprise and then panic for many students and parents alike.
In truth, Morales had most recently worked at Diamond Ranch High School. He had only been a volunteer instructor at Diamond Bar High School from 1998 to 2000 and has not been associated with DBHS in over a decade. In fact, according to Principal Catherine Real and DBHS band instructor Steve Acciani, DBHS consistently takes steps to carefully filter the volunteers and employees who work with the students directly through a stringent hiring process which includes a Department of Justice background check.
“[Upon reading this article,] I immediately went into principal action: let the superintendent know that we might have an issue, then I contacted Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Acciani so that we could work together to craft a message to parents,” Principal Catherine Real stated.
As Morales was a volunteer at DBHS 13 years ago, DBHS’ school administration does not seem to perceive a large reason for concern over the safety of the students. Nonetheless, Real took the necessary action to instruct parents on who they should contact in case they were aware of any inappropriate behavior.
“If any of our current students have contact with him and are aware of inappropriate behavior they should talk to their parents as well as notify an adult on campus,” Real concluded.
